*Hey guys, I have re-done the end of this chapter because after hearing some of the reviews I had, most people weren't too happy with how I ended things, and after looking back and re-reading it, neither was I...so, I hope you like the new ending, and the new story will be up ASAP!*
1 month later
...
"Aww he's just the cutest baby in the world, isn't he?" My mother boasts, pure pride in her voice and expression. She has Riley in her arms and she's cooing over him, like normal. My dad is sitting in his chair, watching some fishing programme, not really listening to my mom's high pitched voice.
"So, how's his sleeping pattern now Bells?" My mom asked, still totally consumed by her grandson.
"It's still a little weird mom, I don't know what to do...he's going to sleep fine and quite early but then in the middle of the night he keeps waking up and crying, I'm worried in case there's something wrong with him, do you think I should take him to the doctor?" Riley's sleeping pattern had been changing the last couple of weeks...he was now 6 weeks old and everything was going great. He was feeding well, his weight was growing, he was beginning to smile and trying his hardest to laugh; he was the perfect baby, except for his changing sleeping pattern. Not only was it making him grouchy in the day, but it was making Edward and I exhausted from being up with him in the nights. My mother looked at me and tried her hardest not to laugh, but failed.
"What's so funny?" I said, a little offended that she was laughing at this serious thing.
"I'm sorry hunny, but you remind me of me when I'd had you." She laughed again, and she was shaking her head as if she was remembering something.
"When you were first born, I was exactly the same as you. I worried over everything, and there was a period when you wouldn't sleep at all...and you'd cry and cry because you were tired, but I couldn't for the life of me get you off to sleep...I felt like I was either doing something wrong or there was something wrong with you,"
"but, I'm going to tell you exactly what my mother told me...you'll know when something is wrong for real, you'll get a feeling deep down in your gut, and with Riley now, I think you're just worried that it's your fault why he's not sleeping...but it's not!" My mom passed the baby to me and I bought him up to my chest. He was so happy at the moment, and my smile was obvious on my face. I knew I was over reacting about it, but I suppose my mother was right, I was worried that he was crying because of something I was doing.
"Thanks mom. You know the right things to say." I smiled at her and she patted my knee and went to do something in the kitchen.
...
About an hour later I'd arrived back at my temporary home; the Cullen household. I could see that Alice's car was out, so I parked up in her space, picked Riley up in his car seat and walked into the house. This house was almost a home to me now; I really felt like part of the family. Edward and I did have our own place to go to, but we were very comfortable here. I knew that in the Cullen's house, I wouldn't have to worry about a thing, and I knew Riley was very safe here with his whole family around him...the thought of moving into our new apartment was making me a little uneasy. I knew it would have to be done soon, I just didn't want to admit it though.
As I walked through to the lounge, I saw Emmett slouching on the sofa watching some football game on the TV. As soon as I walked in, Riley started stirring, which made Emmett look up in my direction.
"Hey Bells." He said with a smile on his face. I really did love Emmett, he just seemed to ooze positivity. I walked over to where he was sat on the sofa and put the car seat down onto the floor. Riley was still stirring and making some noise, so I decided to get him some milk. I'd recently started using a breast pump to save time, in case we ever went out and Riley needed some food.
"Em, can you just watch him for me a second, I need to go warm up his bottle." Emmett nodded at me and once I was up out of my seat he shifted over so that he was in front of the baby. I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle out of the fridge and started preparing the bottle warmer. As I was walking back into the living room with the bottle, I noticed Emmett was holding Riley on his lap so that he was facing the TV. As I got closer, I could hear Emmett talking to the baby.
"So, when you get older, me, your daddy and your uncle Jasper are all going to teach you how to play football, and then you can become a quarter back in high school and pick up lots of chicks, that's how I got your aunt." I giggled to myself at what he was saying. I walked around to sit back down onto the sofa.
"Umm, Riley will not be picking up chicks, he's too good for any woman!" I said, smiling at Emmett.
"Also, he is not playing football...he can play baseball or something less violent than football." I nodded in confirmation to myself, but I could see Emmett roll his eyes.
"You see Riley, this is why I will first teach you the secret ways of lying with a good cause." I scoffed at Emmett who passed the baby over to me.
"You will do no such thing Emmett Cullen!" I smirked at him, and I could see him smirk back. I started feeding Riley, who seemed quite content now, when I heard the door open again. As I looked around I saw Jasper and Alice walk in hand in hand. They seemed quite happy as they sat down on the chair near the sofa. Alice was now 19 weeks pregnant, and you could see the little bump underneath her t-shirt...she really did look quite glowing.
"Hey you two, what you been doing?" I asked whilst Riley was finishing off his bottle.
"We went to the doctors today for a scan. You wanna see?" Alice said, with happiness in her eyes. I nodded and she pulled out a picture from her bag and handed it to me. There on the picture was a little outline of a baby in black and white. I felt really happy for both of them and handed the picture to Emmett.
"Wow guys! Baby looks healthy then." I said with a smile on my face.
"Yeah, doctor said we could find out the sex soon, but I think we're going to make it a surprise, like you and Edward." Jasper said, just as happy and Alice looked.
"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure you'll be happy." I said, smiling at them both. Riley had finished his bottle by the time we'd stopped talking, and as I was burping him, Edward and Rose walked in. Edward came over to me and gave me a quick chaste kiss and kissed Riley on the head before sitting next to me. Rose went over to Em and gave him a quick kiss too. As I was done with Riley, Edward held his hands out to take him from me so I could put the bottle into the dishwasher. As I came back, there seemed to be a debate going on.
"I don't think Rose and I are going to have a baby any time soon." Emmett said matter-of-factly. Rose nodded her head in agreement, and I knew they were on about something we were all thinking.
"Well, it's only you and Rose left now to pop out a sprog, I'm just saying, it might be sooner than you think." Edward said, whinding Em and Rose up. I never really thought of Rose being a mother, especially at this point in her life. I mean, Emmett was moving up in the world of football, and Rose was one of the best writers at the local newspaper. They both had very high expectations of future careers, and I don't think they were going to let a baby come in between getting their dream jobs.
"Rose and I will have a baby if and when we're ready. I at least want to be married first with a good job, and I'm sure Rose wants the same thing." He looked over at Rose who, again, nodded her head in agreement.
"You know I'm only joking around Em, I'm sure you and Rose will show all of us up by not having a kid at this age." Jasper said, and I think I saw everyone else nod in agreement to him.
"Besides, I prefer being an uncle at the moment." Emmett said as he looked over at Riley, who was care-free in Edward's arms. I could see from Emmett's face that he really did like being an uncle, and I could tell that Riley would very much gain from having Em as an uncle.
After another 10 minutes of random talking, Rose and Emmett left, and Jasper and Alice were lounging around watching TV. Edward and I decided it would be a good idea to grab some food, so we packed up the baby bag, put Riley in his car seat, and head out into Forks town for some lunch. It was about 2:30pm and we hadn't realised where the day went, so we parked up in the only restaurant in Forks and walked in with Riley in his seat. As we walked in I spotted a table filled with all of Edwards baseball team; there must of been about 10 of them around this one table. I looked at Edward, who just smiled at me, but I could see the look of unease in his eyes. Since Riley was born, Edward hadn't really spoken to any of his team mates, except Mike and Eric who we'd seen at the New Year's Eve party a month ago. I knew Edward was a bit worried about seeing them, I mean, he'd had a baby and he'd stopped going to practice, so he had no clue as to what his team mates would think of him. I grabbed his hand to show I cared and we walked over to a booth and sat down.
"You can go over and talk to them if you want?" I said to Edward, trying to egg him to talk to them. I knew Edward missed playing baseball, and I even encouraged him to keep going to practice, I mean, it was only twice a week, but, for whatever reasons he had in his head, he didn't go back, but I knew he missed it.
"No, it's okay. I'll speak to them another time." He said, looking at the menu. I shook my head and looked at the menu too, deciding on a plate of macaroni cheese with bacon bits. As the waitress came over and took our orders, I could see the boys looking over at us, and I could see a few saying things that were obviously about us. I didn't appreciate being looked at like animals in a zoo, and as I was about to walk over and ask them what their problem was, they started to get up and walk over to us. I looked at Edward who had his head slightly down as if to hide the fact that he was here, but they got closer to our table until they stopped in front of us. The only people I knew from the team were Mike and Eric, and they were both lovely, so I decided to talk to them.
"Hey Mike, hey Eric, how are you?" I said, putting on a happy voice.
"Hey Bells, we're good, how are you?" Mike said.
"I'm very good, just tired a lot of the time, but I suppose that's what having a baby does to you." I chuckled, knowing I'd probably made it a bit awkward. Some tall guy with sandy coloured hair came up to the front of the group to speak.
"Hey, Cullen, you gonna start training with us again? We've got a lot of games coming up and we need our star player." The boy said, with others agreeing. Edward looked up, a little in shock I think by how they were acting to him; like he hadn't gone.
"Well, I don't know...I didn't know if I was welcome back after I took some time off."
"Are you kidding? We didn't know if you'd want to come back after having a baby, but we were all hoping you would!" Eric said. Edward looked at me as if searching me for an answer, but he knew what I'd say if he asked for my opinion; I never wanted him to stop playing.
"Well, I suppose I can come back, I mean, you probably do suck without me!" He said quite smugly. He stood up and fist pumped Eric and Mike. It was quite cute to see really. In all the hollering and cheering made from the team, Riley had stirred a little and was making some noise. Edward instantly turned and picked him up out of his seat and held him in his arms.
"So is this our new player?" Mike said, touching Riley's hand and stroking it. Edward looked amused.
"Definitely, we'll need someone to pitch in when Eric get's another bat to the face!" They all laughed and started talking about the incident before Edward put Riley back down in his seat. The boys all said their 'goodbyes' and had planned to meet up within the week to start practising. Finally when they left, our food arrived and Edward sat back down at the table.
"See, I told you it would be fine." I said, probably too smug for my own good. Edward looked at me and rolled his eyes very sarcastically. We started eating our food and made quite conversation. Once we'd eaten, it was about 3:30pm and we decided to head home.
Once we were back home, I settled Riley down in his mosses basket whilst I started reading a book and Edward was busy helping Jasper with something. It really was a very relaxed day, but, for some reason or another, I had a feeling that something was going to go wrong today...I don't know what was telling me this, but I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach. I ignored it, trying not to make a downer on this relaxing day, and carried on reading my book. After an hour or so, Edward, Emmett and Jasper decided to go into town and grab a rental and some munch so that we could watch a nice film together to end of our relaxing day. Whilst they were gone, Esme and Carlisle appeared and both fussed with Riley, who was still oblivious to the world, whilst I decided to pump some more milk in Edward's room.
...
An hour later, we'd ordered pizza, put in the film, and we all settled down to enjoy. Riley was in his cot now, so I had the baby monitor basically strapped to my ear in case anything happened to him. The film started and we were silent until about half an hour in our food arrived. We each grabbed a plate and settled back down.
As the film went on, I took the opportunity to look around the room at my loving family. I noticed, even in that moment that I looked around, that the room was just filled with love; unconditional.
I was truly blessed to be in the presence of such a loving family, and I couldn't wait to see what would happen in the next couple of months, the next couple of years, just to see the love grow and progress.
I then thought back to that first day, the day I found out I was pregnant with Edward Cullen's child, and I remember how scared and frightened I was and how I thought that Edward would hate me and how I thought I would be on my own through all of this...and then my mind went back to this moment, and how everything in my life had changed, and, in all honesty, it seemed to change for the better. Sure, some people would say that having a baby at only 17 years old is a stupid idea and it would never work out and that child wouldn't have a good life, but, from what has happened in just the short time that Riley has been here, I think that his life will always be filled with loving, caring people that will protect him throughout his life, and for that, I was truly grateful.
So guys, this is the end of Pregnant at 17! :(
*sad times!*
But, the sequel will be with you all shortly...please be patient with me, the story is in progress, and hopefully the first chapter will be up soon (fingers crossed)
Thank you to everyone who has kept with this story, it really does mean a lot to have such dedicated readers and followers! Thank you to everyone who's been there from the very beginning and has stuck through until the end.
Rhiannon x